Friday, February 06, 2009

Democrat Strategist Warns His Party to "Beware of Michael Steele" [UPDATED]

... Steele is a friendly, formidable, and very partisan man who should not be underestimated. He has a disarming and gifted television personality and an uncanny ability to make the most unreasonable arguments sound rational. In a debate, he can charm his opponents into a false sense of security, and then proceed to maul them. Democrats who underrate Steele do so at their own peril.

The press continually refers to Steele as a "moderate", but he is not a moderate -- he only plays one on television. Under that friendly persona of reasonableness lies the soul of a doctrinaire conservative. From an ardent supply-sider to a committed pro-life advocate (he came within a year of being ordained a Catholic priest), Steele is firmly on the Right.

In the pro-choice state of Maryland, Steele rarely raised the abortion issue in his races for Lieutenant Governor and the U.S. Senate. But his party is looking to him to rekindle the passions of the pro-life movement on a national stage. And Steele is aware of the 2008 falloff of voter turnout in precincts where the pro-life movement is strong.

Democrats will say that abortion is not an important issue right now, especially in the midst of a daunting recession. Among most voting groups they are right, but they miss a group critical to maintaining the Democrats' majority -- Hispanics. Obama won many of their votes in 2008, but the bulk of Hispanic voters, like Steele, are Catholic and fervently anti abortion.

Steele understands that his party cannot regain a national majority unless the GOP can cut into the 2-1 advantage Obama received from Hispanics. But he also recognizes his party's opposition to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, many of whom are Hispanics. That position was, in part, responsible for major defections among Hispanics in 2008 who voted 40%+ for George Bush in 2004. The abortion card, carefully played, is in Steele's hand. And he will use it.

***... Born on a military base in Washington D.C., Steele was put up for adoption. His adoptive parents, also from D.C., were hard working people of meager means. Along with his adopted sister (once married to boxer Mike Tyson) Steele was raised in a highly disciplined environment supplemented by a rigorous Catholic education.

***... Steele is smart enough to avoid direct attacks on a popular president. That said, he anticipates Obama's favorable ratings to fall, which is likely, and when they do, expect Steele to go after the president with a vengeance. It is here that Steele enjoys an advantage: his race. He can attack Obama without being accused of playing the race card.

***Steele once told me a story that speaks volumes about his determination to succeed: Steele attended college at Johns Hopkins University. In his freshman year, Steele said, his grades were so bad that the dean of students told him he would not be invited to return. His mother forced him to go back to the dean and insist he was prepared to do anything to continue his studies. The dean said "no," but Steele's mother made him confront the dean again. This went on for weeks until the dean, in desperation, agreed to readmit Steele with the proviso that any bad grades would end in his dismissal, mother or no mother. Steele went on to graduate near the top of his class at Johns Hopkins and was elected student body president.

But I also take such assessments from liberals with a grain of salt. These are the same folks who just last year acted as if John McCain were a solidly conservative pro-life stalwart. They believe George W. Bush to be some sort of rabid right-winger.

It's hard to take seriously their assessments of anyone to their right as "conservative".

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About Me

A convert to the Catholic Church who became Catholic because of a belief in and devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. * A graduate of Baylor University and the University of Virginia School of Law. * Former Mayor of the Town of Columbia, Virginia. * Married with four children: two boys and two girls. * Primary interests include the Catholic Church, family, Early American History, and law/politics * Primary purpose of this blog is fostering enlightened discussion about the roles played by the institutions of religion, family, and state in our daily lives. * Under the protection of St. Thomas More, martyr, and patron of lawyers, judges, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, and large families (not to mention troubled marriages).

Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, keen in study, correct in conclusion, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, trustworthy with confidences, courageous in court. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients' tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.

Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain -- their good servant, and God's first. AMEN.

Dear Scholar and Martyr, it was not the King of England but you who were the true Defender of the Faith. Like Christ unjustly condemned, neither promises nor threats could make you accept a civil ruler as head of the Christian Church.

Perfect in your honesty and love of truth, grant that lawyers and judges may imitate you and achieve true justice for all people. AMEN.

"Give me the Grace Good Lord, to set the world at naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee and not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths. To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly company but utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of the business thereof."